Buffalo Bandits Lacrosse: Resetarits fuels first win
By Michael J. Petro
The Buffalo Bandits needed a spark to end the franchise’s worst losing streak to start a season. Hamburg native Frank Resetarits helped provide it.
The Bandits found a way to get the ball more often on the stick of Resetarits and the third-year professional responded, recording a hat trick in Buffalo’s first win in five tries this season, 11-7 over Minnesota on Jan. 30. Buffalo took its first postgame victory lap around the field inside HSBC Arena, thanks in part to spreading the ball around to Resetarits and some of the other more unheralded Bandits.
The first-year Bandit, acquired in a 2009 draft-day trade with the Washington Stealth, scored twice in a 31-second span in the first half, then again in the third quarter as Buffalo began to pull away in a game once tied 5-5 at halftime. The effort couldn’t have come at a more opportune time with the Bandits missing three regular forwards due to injury, including all-time great John Tavares, and the recent release of two other forwards.
Buffalo had been the lowest scoring team in the league with an 8.5 goals per game average through the first three weeks of the 16-game regular season.
“It absolutely was a must-win for us but I don’t think we panicked,” said Resetarits, a former star at Hamburg High School and the University of Albany, who was signed to a one-year contract with the Bandits on Dec. 2. “We just went out there, saying that we’ve been playing lacrosse for a long time, so we know what to do. Our offense has kind of been the weak link, so we wanted to go back to basics and we finally got some bounces. When we go out and spread the ball around, that’s the kind of results we can have.”
Bandits’ top scorer Mark Steenhuis took advantage of the double teams he saw for most of the contest, dishing out a single-game, team-record eight assists, to go along with one goal. He assisted on two of Resetarits’ tallies. Buffalo also got goals from four others, including two from Mike Accursi, one from Kevin Dostie and the first in the Bandits’ careers of Brandon Francis and Kyle Clancy.
“It’s nice to be able to chip in here and there,” said Resetarits, who has witnessed the worst start for the four-time championship-winning organization since the inception of the National Lacrosse League and the Bandits in 1992. “I had a good night shooting and as soon as my stick was open, the ball was there. I’m not going to score too many goals one-on-one so I need to give my teammates credit...Mark is so unselfish. He saw other guys open and got their sticks going.”
Bandits’ head coach Darris Kilgour was happy to see his offensive players perform in a smarter fashion and put each other in a position to succeed. He wanted to see Resetarits more involved in the offense and felt that would come with an increase in the level of comfort between teammates.
After not playing in the opener at Rochester, Resetarits has been in the lineup the past four games, but didn’t break out until this his second home game of the season. He got his first goal of the season in the Bandits’ home opener on Jan. 16, then picked up a pair of assists in road losses to Washington and Edmonton on Jan. 22 and 23, respectively.
“Frank has been open all season and guys haven’t really found him,” Kilgour said. “I think right now the guys are just figuring out what he’s really good at. I thought tonight we did a lot better job of finding him when he was open and obviously he showed that he’s a goal scorer.”
Resetarits shot the ball nine times, seven were on net. He helped build an early 4-1 lead for the Bandits with consecutive goals in the first quarter. The first was scored on a long right-side shot off a pass from Clancy with 3:03 left, then Steenhuis found him soon after in front of the net and Resetarits deposited a bounce shot.
The Bandits squandered their lead after being outplayed in the second quarter, but Buffalo outscored Minnesota 4-0 in the third with a little help from Resetarits, who finished a shot from in front of the net off a Brett Bucktooth feed. Buffalo would not allow the Swarm to get any closer than three goals the rest of the way.
“I had a good shoot-around and felt good in warm-ups, so I figured if I got some chances, I’d pull the trigger,” said Resetarits, who registered 50 points, including 24 goals, in two seasons — 21 regular season games — with the Stealth franchise, formerly located in San Jose. “The guys made some good looks to me and all I had to do was set my feet and shoot.”
Buffalo also played one of its best defensive games. Despite being outshot 51-43, the Bandits closed down the middle of the field and allowed veteran goaltender Ken Montour to see many of the shots taken.
“We’ve got some real athletes and some big boys back there and when they’re sliding hard and hitting hard, they’re pretty intimidating,” Resetarits noted. “You can tell as the game went on, they didn’t want to go through the middle. When Kenny sees shots, he’s not going to let many go in.”
Resetarits also used his own 6-foot-2, 210-pound frame and physicality to help set up several successful offensive sets and draw two Minnesota penalties that both led to Bandits’ goals. Kilgour likes the toughness that Resetarits has brought to the team, noting that the new Bandit suffered a broken nose in the home opener and still has yet to come out of the lineup since.
“Frank’s been nothing but heart and soul for us so far,” said Kilgour, whose team next plays Saturday, Feb. 6, hosting Eastern Conference front-runner Toronto Rock starting 7:30 p.m. “I’m very glad he’s on our team.”
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